


at the days' end

by q_is



Series: did i dream you? [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Bonding, Nonbinary Character, Other, Past Pet Abuse, its mentioned pretty quick, not by rensung!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-24 05:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30067251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/q_is/pseuds/q_is
Summary: “Would you hold him while I get the emergency kit?”, Renjun asked, pointing to the box near the cage, out of the playpen. “Or do you wanna get it for me?”It was too big of a step and Renjun was fairly sure Jisung would say no, but it didn’t hurt to ask. Jisung’s eyes widened as they looked between Marshal and the emergency kit. It took them a while to answer.“I… I will hold him”, they said, getting a spare fleece liner from the floor. “But be quick.”
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Park Jisung
Series: did i dream you? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2211984
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	at the days' end

**Author's Note:**

> fluffy and very self indulgent! no one asked for renjun's piggies backstory but here it is :D 
> 
> could probably be read as a standalone me thinks but for context, read [elin nín](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28494549) first!! <3

“Baby, would you get the boys’ food, please?”

“Sure!”, Jisung called out, shuffling from somewhere around him to the kitchen.

Renjun smiled, going through the boxes under the table that held Filbert and Marshal’s cage looking for their emergency kit. He always put it all the way in, with a bunch of other stuff like hay and pellet boxes in front of it, and every Sunday he got annoyed with himself when it was time for the piggies weekly checkup. Putting away some wooden hides and spare hay racks and fleece liners, he let out a victorious _aha!,_ getting the kit and putting it on the floor beside him.

He stared at the mess he made, deciding to fix it later as he got up.

Looking through the kitchen island, he saw Jisung getting the veggies from the fridge, whistling a song Renjun couldn’t recognize. They swayed to it, getting a bowl from the cupboard to put the guinea pigs’ food. 

He couldn’t help smiling, going through the motions of cleaning the boys’ cage by sheer practice while he tried to stop staring and failed. 

Just to keep him on his toes, Marshal bit lightly on his finger when Renjun lingered too much scratching behind his ear. He chuckled, making an amused face as the piggies started wheeking as soon as Jisung started chopping. 

“Someone is hungry”, Jisung singsonged.

“When are they not”, Renjun said, shaking his head.

He cleaned the center table, putting away the weird, ugly cloth his mom used to like so much, and the vase Jisung had chosen as their first decoration for the apartment. It was round with blue spirals, filled with water and a sole red rose Jisung had gotten him for their last date to the park. It would wither soon but Renjun was going to press it in his sketchbook before it did.

He laid a fleece liner on the table just as Jisung came out of the kitchen.

“All done”, they said, stopping by the doorway, nervously passing the bowl from a hand to another.

Renjun could feel their anxiety in waves. He smiled, softly, walking up to hug them by the waist, leaning his chin on their chest to look at their face.

“You don’t have to help me if you don’t wanna, Sungie.”

“I want to help.” Jisung sighed, pouting. “I am just nervous.”

“And that’s okay. I’ll be there, you’ll help me and I’ll help you, yeah?”, Renjun said, getting on his tiptoes to kiss their nose and distract them from their nerves. 

Jisung let out a surprised noise, cheeks turning red under the attention, raising the hand that wasn’t holding the bowl of food to hide their face. That’s when Filbert decided it was the perfect time for a loud, indignant wheek, making Renjun laugh and tug on Jisung’s shirt towards the living room. 

“Would you open their playpen while I get them?”

“Okay” Jisung nodded, putting the bowl in the center table before getting the playpen from under the cage. 

While they were busy with that, Renjun armed himself with a piece of cucumber to distract the piggies when he scooped them up. It was never easy, not even with Filbert, the tamest piggie he ever had. They simply hated being picked up, and he understood, really, - prey animal and all - but it had to happen sometimes.

One, two. Renjun put Filbert on the floor and sat down with Marshal on his arms. He knew if he put Marshal on the floor first it'd be a pain to pick him up again. 

“All ready”, he said, giving in and letting Filbert get a piece of tomato when he tried to climb on top of his feet. “Will you stay outside?”

Jisung was sitting on the couch, legs up and out of the floor. Renjun didn’t mind if they didn’t want to participate, they had come a long way with feeding the boys and cleaning the cage when he asked them to. It was their idea to help out with checkups anyway, so if they backed out, he would understand.

“No.” They took a deep breath and lowered themselves to the ground, sitting beside him and against the couch, making sure Filbert was on the other side of the playpen so they wouldn’t sit on top of him.

Renjun smiled, heart warm. “Good job, baby.”

Jisung cleared their throat, ears red as they waved him off. He chuckled, petting Marshal’s fur. 

“Would you hold him while I get the emergency kit?”, he asked, pointing to the box near the cage, out of the playpen. “Or do you wanna get it for me?”

It was too big of a step and Renjun was fairly sure Jisung would say no, but it didn’t hurt to ask. Jisung’s eyes widened as they looked between Marshal and the emergency kit. It took them a while to answer. 

“I… I will hold him”, they said, getting a spare fleece liner from the floor. “But be quick.”

Renjun blinked, a bit stunned, holding out Marshal for Jisung to take. They didn’t flinch but their hold was awkward as they didn’t really know what to do with their hands. He made sure they were supporting Marshal’s spine and paws before getting up and quickly grabbing the kit. 

It was an adorable sight. Jisung’s concentrated face, holding Marshal off their lap in the same position Renjun had left them in. Marshal’s eyes begged him to be faster, wide and confused with what was happening and why he was so far away from the ground. Deciding to save the both of them, he sat back down, offering Filbert another tomato piece for being a good boy and just chilling inside his fleece tunnel, before turning back to Jisung.

“You can give him back”, he said with a small laugh. “Or just put him in your lap, you’re both so awkward.”

Jisung didn’t move a muscle, looking at him from the corner of their eyes. 

“My lap?”, they asked, uncertain.

“Yeah, like I was holding him before.”

Renjun took Marshal from their hands, holding him single handedly while he fixed the fleece liner on Jisung’s lap, before giving him back and letting Marshal snuggle between their legs. 

“Just make sure he doesn’t jump off”, he said, maneuvering Jisung’s hands to block Marshal’s way out. “Is this okay?”

Where he put them, Jisung stayed, looking at Marshal with wide, curious eyes. 

“Yeah”, they said, keeping their hands still even though Marshal gave no signs he wanted to leave his position. In fact, he leaned his chin against Jisung’s calf, finally relaxing now that he wasn’t being held hostage. 

Renjun bit his lip to keep his smile in, discreetly taking his phone from his back pocket and snapping a few pictures. 

“Alright, then I’ll get everything I need.”

He opened the emergency kit, getting the scale, the notebook he used to keep track of their weight and the nail clipper, putting it on top of the center table with their bowl of food. There was some shuffling and the both of them turned to see Filbert burrowing in his pile of hay.

Renjun snapped another picture, just for good measure.

“Here”, he said, getting a chicory leaf and passing it to Jisung, smiling when the piggies started wheeking again. “Let Marshal munch on this while I cut his nails.”

Filbert started pawing at Jisung’s legs, since they were the one holding the food. Renjun snorted, getting another leaf.

“Filbert”, he called in a higher voice, the one he always used to speak to the piggies. “Here, baby.”

He held out the leaf and Filbert didn’t think twice before leaving Jisung alone and stealing it from his hand, though he didn’t go far, settling down beside them on the floor to eat. Now Marshal was very interested in what was going on, climbing on top of Jisung’s thigh to get to the other leaf.

“Elin nín”, Jisung called, a bit freaked out, hand following the piggie so he wouldn’t jump off their lap.

“It’s okay.” Renjun reached out, positioning Jisung’s hand so they were holding Marshal’s front legs up, supporting him against their chest and had a free hand to feed him and distract him from Renjun cutting his nails. “See, you got this. Just be careful so he doesn’t bite your fingers off.”

Laughter erupted from deep within him when Jisung snapped their head to stare at him with wide eyes.

“I’m joking, he’s not gonna hurt you”, Renjun said, combing Jisung’s hair out of their face tenderly. “He does bite, though, so pay attention.”

Jisung nodded, although they still looked offended. Renjun pushed forward to kiss their forehead in apology, smiling when Jisung rolled their eyes fondly. They started feeding Marshal and he got one of his paws in hand to cut his nails.

It was a long process, because food only distracted them for a while. They often had to stop for Marshal to calm down, letting him munch on a different type of food so he wouldn’t get too stressed. Half an hour later they were done, Renjun giving Jisung the notebook to write down Marshal’s weight (1,278kg, a big boy, 20 grams more than last week), while he stopped him from running away from the scale.

Filbert was much easier, keeping calm for longer periods of time, though every so often he’d try to pull his paw from Renjun’s hold. He was a bit of a glutton so it only took waving a chicory leaf in front of his face for him to get distracted, munching on it like he’d never get to eat again in his life.

It made Renjun’s heart hurt, because he knew it was from his old owners that left him days without eating. Filbert was his oldest piggie, would be five this year. Out of those, three were spent with him, and Filbert had come a long way, they had a bond that Renjun had never had with any guinea pig he owned before, though that didn’t mean he loved them any less. Now Marshal was younger, just three years old. He was born at a rescue, and Renjun got him for Filbert, because guinea pigs shouldn’t live alone. 

His mom had gone mad when he appeared with Filbert in his arms, after taking him from his moving neighbors that didn’t want to keep him, and Renjun didn’t want for them to keep Filbert either. He used to own piggies when he was younger, after his last pair his mom swore them off, but even she couldn’t say no to Filbert’s cute little face.

“Alright, all done”, he said, letting Filbert get down from the scale. “This big boy right here is 1,453kg.”

Jisung nodded, writing it down. “30 grams more than last week.”

Filbert got up on his back legs, resting his front paws in Renjun’s thigh and he gave him the last piece of cucumber on the bowl, scratching behind his ears. “Good boy.”

Marshal, interested in what Filbert was doing, came to sniff at the food and try to steal it from him. Renjun and Jisung watched as Filbert headbutted Marshal away, but only for a little while before Marshal tried again. 

He turned to look at Jisung, surprised by the soft smile on their face.

“They’re not that bad, are they?”, he asked, shuffling near them so he could lean his head against their shoulder.

Jisung stiffened, surprised, before resting their cheek on top of his head, snaking an arm around his shoulders and pulling him closer. Renjun smiled, snuggling against his side and holding on to their waist, putting his legs on top of their lap. There was absolutely no place better than where he was right now.

“I guess not”, they said, hesitating as Marshal put his paws in their thigh, sniffing at them like they were hiding something from him. 

Renjun watched as Jisung tentatively held out their hand, stopping when Marshal flinched, but the both of them relaxed when Jisung started petting Marshal’s head. There was no more food but scratches were a pretty good alternative.

“They are kind of cute.”

He looked from Marshal trying to sniff Jisung’s fingers, to Filbert, lying by their feet, waiting to be put back in the cage now that the suffering was done and the food was gone, to Jisung’s smile, as they let Marshal chase their finger but not get close enough to bite, and realised that this was home.

“You’re kinda cute”, he said, squeezing Jisung’s waist. 

Renjun couldn’t see it, but he was pretty sure Jisung was blushing, so he smiled anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! <3
> 
> descanse em paz, m.
> 
> [twt](https://mobile.twitter.com/J4EMLES)


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